Tour de Fleece: Introduction
If you haven’t heard of Tour de Fleece, brace yourself because it’s all you’re going to hear about in the spinning community for the next month!
It started in 2006 when spinner, knitter, crocheter and designer Star Athena thought it might be nice to do a spinalong with some friends in tandem (!) with the Tour de France cycling race.
For those not familiar with it, the Tour de France, often referred to simply as ‘le Tour’ is a 21-day race across France, (sometimes visiting other European countries for a day or two) covering around 2,200 miles/3,500km. It’s the most famous cycling race in the world, first organised in 1903. Each days race is called a stage and the current leader of the general classification is awarded the prestigious Yellow Jersey at the end of each stage. Other jerseys are awarded for the best climbers (polka dot jersey), sprinters (green jersey) and rookies (white jersey). Le Tour finishes on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
From its humble beginnings, Tour de Fleece has grown into a global spinning community event and now also includes the women’s race the Tour de France Femmes (TdFF) which started in 2022. The main community hubs are the Ravelry and Facebook groups, but you’ll also see folks just sharing their progress on social media instead.
Tour de Fleece ‘Rules’
The guidelines (there are no real rules) are:
Spin every day that the Tour de France/Tour de France Femmes ride, if possible.
Rest on the days they rest.
Challenge yourself on their toughest days (like mountain stages).
If you want to dress up, consider wearing yellow on the final day of the race or on any day when you feel especially successful. You might choose to wear green when you’ve spun particularly fast, polka dot when it’s been an uphill battle or white if it’s your first year, your first time trying a specific technique, spinning a new fibre or maybe you just made a rookie error!
There are teams for:
Peloton (the main contingent)
Rookies (first year participants)
Lanterne Rouge (lower commitment — the last rider to complete the Tour de France without being disqualified is called the Lanterne Rouge)
Wildcards (people wanting to form their own team)
Teams are organised either through Ravelry, Facebook or specific manufacturers social media accounts. But you don’t have to be part of a team, you can just spin for the sake of spinning and share your progress on social media if you want to.
2023’s Tour de Fleece dates:
Tour de France (TdF) starts Saturday 1st July, and finishes Sunday 23rd July.
Tour de France Femmes (TdFF) starts Sunday 23rd July and finishes Sunday 30th July.
Tour de Fleece 2024
This year’s Tour De France begins on Saturday 29th June and ends on Sunday 21st July. Due to the Olympics being hosted in Paris, there will then be a three-week gap between the two events, with the Tour de France Femmes beginning on Monday 12th August.
The calendar has now been updated to include the 2024 Tour de Fleece dates.
Tour de Fleece Calendar
For your convenience, I’ve created a Tour de Fleece calendar that you can subscribe to through Apple’s Calendar app or Google Calendar (and any other calendar system that supports it!).
Subscribe to the calendar <- Click the link and then confirm the subscription in your calendar app.
Note that ‘subscribing’ is free and anonymous. I can’t see or store any of your data and you can unsubscribe at any time by following the relevant instructions for your preferred calendar app. The calendar is read-only which means you can’t change anything on it.
I’ve double-checked it but if you spot any errors or would like me to include any other information please let me know. I hope it’s useful!
